The New Delinquent
by Man Chest
Summary: Sorry about the alarm. Story isn't finished still. I've decided to now release chapters every other Monday because I'M A LAZY DOOOOOUUUUCHEBAAAAG.
1. The New Delinquent

**Disclaimer: Nah, I don't own anything residing within the series of School Rumble. It belongs to the godly Jin Koboyashi.**

**Author's Note: Hey there. This is my first FanFiction ever! I thought I should do this on one of my favorite animes, School Rumble. Now, this is about a high school-er by the name of Sou Shuda. Uh...Yeah, don't want to ruin it too much [or run out of commentary] so let's get going! I'm hoping I will complete this story (as most stories I simply drop through laziness), but I also am aiming around twenty-or-so chapters. Not an impossible feat, but it'll take a while. I'll also try for one update per week. Probably Sundays (yet I'm starting on Wednesday, hurrrrr durrrr). Anyways, I like rambling, so let's stop now.**

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**Chapter 1**

The New Delinquent

"Damn that Harima!" Sou yelled, punching the shadowy wall in an ally. The wall cracked slightly under the strength of his punch and the little chips that broke away fell to the floor. "How is a guy like him more known than me?!"

His name was Sou Shuda. Many people on the streets referred to him as an extreme badass delinquent. Ever since he was young, he's been a delinquent. He pushed around people who were both weaker and equivalent to him in power, gotten into actual knife fights and gang wars, and witnessed someone die. He only has a single friend, and a father who used to be an abusive drunk. He's the badassiest of the badasses (according to him) "...so why am I underclassed to someone like Harima?!" he punched the wall once more before he walked out of the ally with his hands bored into the pockets of his black leather jacket.

Summer vacation had just started, meaning Sou's life was getting boring again. In reality, he had nothing to do except to hang out with Laura, his only friend, or walk his dog named Shuppie. That warm heat melted his body within the leather jacket, but he refused to take it off because he disliked carrying things around. "What is there to do around here, anyways? I've been here for as long as I can remember, and I'm still not sure of what to do."

He looked around at other people to see what they were doing. He saw a young couple walk into the movies. "Hm. I did want to see that one movie. Sounds like a good idea. Maybe Laura would like to see it, too? Eh. I'll call her." Sou got out his cellphone and dialed Laura's number. The cellphone rang and rang.

Laura eventually answered, "Hello?"

"Hey, Laura. Sou here. Wanna go see a movie with me?"

"Ouch. Sorry. I already have plans for today. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Nah. I hate Wednesdays. Thursday?"

"I'm going out of town that day. Friday?"

"No. Anything beyond three days is too long for me to remember."

"Ah. Too bad. Sorry I can't come."

"It's all right. I'll just find something else to do."

"Okay, then. Later!"

"Later." He hung up immediately afterward and started walking down the street, looking up towards the sky. "Damn. Boring day, I guess."

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice yelled, "Look out! Look out! Run-away bicycle!"

Sou looked ahead, but was two late. A heavy metallic object barreled into him, knocking him straight down. As his consciousness started to slip, he heard a girl yelling, "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry!" Sou passed out.

Later, Sou woke up in a hospital. He tried sitting up in bed, but a sharp pain in his abdominal region prevented him from doing so. He grasped the burning area and let his head fall back into the soft, fluffy pillow of his bed. Seeing as he couldn't do anything, he decided to sleep again. Just before his consciousness started to slip again, he heard crying coming from the side of his bed. Instantly, his eyes pried open and looked over to see that the culprit was a high school student. This confused him even more. She was crying so much, he may just think that he'd actually died!

"Doctor! Doctor! He died! The kid died!"

"WHAT?!" Sou cried out, immediately sitting up, feeling his body to see if he were still alive or not. Indeed he was. He realized this when the sharp pain in his stomach punched him again. He fell back down onto the pillow.

"Oh, silly me, he was just sleeping."

"Now, Tsukamoto, you've already made this mistake three times. If he's dieing, please make sure that he's actually dieing next time, okay? Now, Shuda-san, is it?" he asked Sou.

Sou looked over and replied, "Yeah. 's me."

"Well, at least you don't have amnesia. All I can really point out is that your collision with Ms. Tsukamoto here reopened a nasty wound in your abdomen. Don't worry, we already stitched it up. You'll be fine. Although, I don't recommend sitting up for a while. I'd say a day or two's worth of sleep will make you all better. Now, we're going to have to ask you to use everything in your power not to reopen that wound. Okay?"

"Okay!" Sou replied hastily.

"Good. Now, a Nurse will be here later to check up on you."

"Oh, goody!" Sou said sarcastically.

The doctor left, and Sou started to fall asleep again, but the girl next to him named Tsukamoto continued to keep him from sleeping. She was staring at him, and it was starting to become annoying. After a while Sou bellowed, "What is it?!"

Tsukamoto just looked at him with her deep blue eyes and repeated, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I heard you the first time." Sou looked up at the ceiling lights, and then back at her. The awkward tension in the room kept building up to a point where conversation had to be made. "So...you're the girl who ran me over, huh?"

The girl bowed repeatedly, reciting, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," over and over again.

"It's okay. There's just a few questions I want to ask you. First...what the hell were you thinking? Riding a bike on the sidewalk at that speed, I mean! You're lucky you only hit me!"

"I'm sorry! I saw a leaf the looked a lot like a squirrel, so I swerved out of its way. But it kept following my bike, so I went all the way to the sidewalk until I got rid of it! And that's when I lost control over my bike!"

Sou was thinking, "_This girl MUST be an idiot, or something._" He sighed, "Okay. I guess it's alright. My next question is what were you doing riding your bike on Summer break? You should be hanging out at friends' houses or something, right?"

"Well, actually...I have summer school," she said embarrassed, trying to laugh off the fact that she actually needs to go to summer school.

"_Yep. Definitely an idiot,_" Sou thought to himself.

"Are you in summer school?"

"No. I get good grades."

"Really?!" she asked, completely baffled.

"_Does she think I'm dumb?_" Sou questioned within his mind. He started to analyze the body of the person who ran him over. She was relatively short, had black hair tied up in two...stem-like things protruding from the side of her head, and always seemed overly cheerful. Also there's the fact that she was small in every way possible. "So, what do your friends call you?"

"Tenma! My name is Tenma! And yours is...?"

"Sou. It's Sou."

"Nice to meet you, Sou! Uh, hey! I have some peanuts...do you want some?"

"Sure. Just hand one to me." Tenma handed exactly one peanut to Sou and watched him break the shell and eat it. "Thanks."

"Want more?"

"Sure!" Tenma now handed him several peanuts, and, one-by-one, he ate them.

"So. You go to our school right?"

"Yeah," Sou responded, chewing on a peanut.

"How long?"

"All three years."

"What?! How come I've never heard of you?!"

"WHAT?!" Sou yelled. He knew that he was overshadowed by Harima, but he really didn't expect someone to not even be aware of his existence. He lunged forward while eating another peanut, only to start choking on it.

"Awww. Hey! Don't do that! Stop it! Stop making fun of me!" Tenma said, playfully. She actually thought he was playing around.

Sou tried speaking, but no words escaped. His face changed colors from normal, to red, to blue. Finally, he spit the peanut out and laid back on his pillow just like a large tree hits the ground after being cut down.

Tenma giggled and looked at the time. "Oh, wow! Would you look at the time? I have to go now, or else my sister will get mad! Well, I'll see you later, I guess?"

"I guess."

"I'll promise to say hi if I see you!"

"Whatever." Sou stared at Tenma as she exited the room. Just as she left, a Nurse came in and started placing a water on a tray along with some sort of meager hospital snack. She then started talking to herself.

"Oh, that Tsukamoto. She's a really nice girl, but she's so dangerous to those around her. Such a klutz!"

"Hey, Nurse-lady? Could you tell me how long she was here?"

"Tsukamoto? Um. Ever since you were wheeled in, if I remember."

"When was that?"

"About noon. It's nine right now."

"Damn!"

"Please refrain from swearing. Thank you."

"Dang," Sou said, correcting himself. And then, just as Tenma did, the Nurse left. Sou watched the door to his room shut and turned on the TV to watch something. "Interesting..." he murmured to himself.

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**AN: If you've read this, a review would be kindly appreciated. I always like to know if it's worth writing a certain story, because I really don't want to waste time writing one story when I can write another one. I'll thank anyone who reviews as soon as I can.**


	2. A Flawed Kindness?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. All things related to the original School Rumble series belongs to Jin Kobayashi.**

**AN: Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Update. Like I said, Sundays are cool. And, yes, I know I updated within the same week, but oh well. Don't expect something like that unless I miss a week (really likely in the future at some unpredictable point of time), so, there's your opening special, I guess. I'll try as hard as possible to get these chapters cranked out every week. It shouldn't be too difficult at this point in time, but later on it might be a problem. LET'S JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS. I'm using up too much time making you read this, so let's just get to the story.**

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**Chapter 2**

A Flawed Kindness?

Sou only took a single day to completely recover. The doctors said he should really rest a day before leaving, as it was a downpour outside. Sou simply turned his back to them and said, "As I long as I have these clothes on my back, then I'll be fine." He stepped through the automatic sliding doors of the hospital and stood underneath its overhang for a while.

He first looked at the sky and came to an immediate conclusion that he wouldn't need his sunglasses. He grabbed his sunglasses by the joint, swiftly took them off, and placed them inside a black glasses case. With his unhindered vision, he could easily judge that it was well before noon. He could also judge that the downpour wasn't very sudden. There were many people walking around with their umbrellas over their head.

The next thing he looked at were the people coming in without umbrellas. While those with umbrellas stayed almost completely dry, those without them arrived with their damp clothes clinging onto their skin. He sighed and mumbled, "Leather doesn't smell good when it's wet." He smiled to himself, realizing that it may have been better to just stay. There wasn't much to go home to anyways. Reluctantly, he started to walk out from the overhang.

Somewhere close by, a young high school girl was walking by the hospital when she spotted Sou getting soaked in the rain. She started to think aloud and said, "I think I know that guy..." And before either of them knew it, she was holding her umbrella over his head. "Sou Shuda, is it?"

Sou, completely set aback by this random act of kindness simply replied, "Yeah."

"I'm Eri Sawachika. I'm in your class. I sit right behind you, if I remember."

"Sorry. I don't pay too close attention to who I sit by."

"I see. Well, seeing that you don't have an umbrella, I can walk home with you so you don't get wet."

"No."

There was a slight pause in the conversation. Eri tried again, "Um, it's raining pretty hard. You'll get your jacket wet, and leather doesn't smell good when it's wet, right?"

"I said no."

Another pause filled the air as the two, surrounded by rain, felt an increasing tension pressing down on the two of them. The rain seemed to pick up speed. "C'mon! I'm trying to be nice to a fellow classmate!"

"Well I don't need your kindness!" Sou blurted out.

"What's your problem? It's a downpour, and there's nothing you're going to gain from walking home in the rain! In fact, you'll probably lose your jacket for a while."

"Then I guess I'm screwed either way."

"How's that?"

"Well, if I go with you, I lose my pride as a man."

"Ugh! You're just as incompetant as that Hige!"

"Huh? Who's Hige?" Sou asked. Eri told him that Hige was Harima.

* * *

It only took a few minutes after that statement that Sou was walking with Eri under her umbrella. He was the one who ended up holding it, due to his towering height over Eri. They both walked down the street in an awkward fashion.

Eri felt a uncomfortable wave of tension emanating from her being near him. Sou was accustomed to not talking to people he barely knew, but Eri had to talk. If she didn't, she wouldn't feel safe around another person. "So...You live on Tsugamine Road?"

"Yeah."

"That's quite a high-class neighborhood you live in."

"Yeah," Sou repeated. His words were plain and simple. However...sometimes... "Doesn't fit me, does it? I mean, a delinquent like me." ...he also wanted to continue the conversation.

"What are you saying? It doesn't matter how you look or act, you can dress like a homeless person, but be the owner of a multi-million dollar company!"

"I see. So that's what you think?"

"Of course. You don't have to look or act rich to be rich. It just depends on if you're really rich or not."

"So what you're saying is that you can never tell if someone is rich or not?"

"In simplified terms, yes."

Sou pondered on it for a while. He knew Eri was rich just by looking at her, but he wasn't that much of a dick to point that out. Instead, he just said, "Alright. I can agree with that."

"Really? Good. I don't like it when people disagree with me," she responded flatly. They walked another block in complete silence, having run out of things to say. Eri searched and searched for a topic, until she thought about her parents. "What are your parents like?"

"My parents? Well. My dad is the owner of some bigass company and he has to go to some bigass meetings over in the bigass United States every month or so. We never move because he says it's too much of a hassle."

"Oh, that must be tough."

"Eh. Not really. I don't miss him at all. He doesn't care about me. Only when I get hurt severely does he suddenly care. Just like every other parent."

Eri ignored Sou's last comment and added her part to the conversation, "My father is the same way. Although he goes to England."

"Ah."

"So...what about your mom?"

"...She's gone. She left my dad years back. She wanted to take me with her so much, but she didn't have any solid proof of neglection against my dad. Now I'm stuck with him forever, and my mom is somewhere out there, probably starving by herself."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

They were almost there, but the walk was still too far to not be talking about anything. "So...uh. Do you have anyone you like?"

"What?" Sou happened to not hear her because of the rain.

"_Oh, gosh! Why did I just ask a question like THAT?! That's so rediculous! He might suspect something! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Gotta change the subject!_"

"What'd you say?" Sou repeated.

"I said, 'Do you have anyone you like?'" Another pause commenced as the regular pitter-patter of the rain morphed into a chaotic drumroll. Eri's face lit up to an almost garish red hue.

"No. I don't see the need to have someone like that in my life."

"_Whew! Good thing he didn't give me any weird looks!_" she thought to herself, her face started to return to its normal color. "Really? What a waste."

"You think I'm wasting my life?"

"No, no! I'm just saying that...well...why spend your last year of high school without somebody there beside you?"

"It's cliché. Besides, I could ask you the exact same thing. The word that went around school is that you haven't had a boyfriend yet."

"H-How did you know that?!"

"A little birdy told me." By "birdy," Sou meant his best friend Laura.

"Anyways, what else is there to talk about?"

"Hold on a moment! This is my house." Sou pointed at the large mansion guarded by an oversized gate. The mansion was atleast five stories high and was overseen by large creatures carved from bushes.

"Oh, really?" Eri looked at the mansion that Sou resided in. It was almost as big as the one she lived in, maybe just a few rooms smaller. It was also quite a bit creepier. "Wow."

"Well, later." Sou swung the gate open and started walking towards his house. Eri was baffled as to how the gate wasn't locked.

"It was nice talking with you. Good-bye," Eri said.

"Whatever."

Sou walked up to the front door and unlocked it. Eri stood there, waiting until he got in and then left.

As she walked home, she mumbled, "Just like Hige." A few seconds later, she simply smiled.

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**AN: So, the story continues. I know. There's so little amount of action that it's laughable. It's also pretty much only pushed forward with dialogue, but oh well. And the writing may be poor, but I haven't been writing in a while. I promise I'll get back in my game in a bit. The next chapter is coming out next Sunday, as promised.**


	3. Old Scars

**Disclaimer: NOTHING. I own absolutely nothing related to the original series School Rumble, which truly belongs to Jin Kobayashi.**

**AN: Could someone please tell me if I have to write the disclaimer every time? No biggy if I have to, I'll just end up copy/pasting it, though. Anyways, this is where the story SPLIIIIITS!!! That doesn't really mean much. It's just going to switch back and forth between certain characters. This will probably happen numerous times within the story. I'll say when in these notes, but you'll most likely figure it out by the second sentence. Right now it SPLIIIIITS between Eri and Sou. Oh, btw, the chapters are going to gradually get longer starting now. I'll still try to keep them nice and short, but they will be longer.**

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**Chapter 3**

Old Scars / Stranger in the Rain

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Sou entered his abode and shed his leather jacket. He looked at it and realized that it became soaked just from the walk between the gate and his house. He frowned and hung it up on the empty coathanger situated next to the door. He placed his shoes next to the coathanger and walked to the first room.

His first room was quite large. It reached three stories tall with two cases of stairs winding all the way up to the top. From the door, the room to the left was the parlor room where the family usually watched TV. In this household, it really just belonged to the maids and Sou's father. The room to the right was the laundry room, and the room straight ahead was a rather large bathroom. Sou completely ignored these rooms.

Sou scaled the winding staircase to the second floor. This floor was basically a kitchen with another bathroom. The kitchen wrapped around the house from the room on the right to the room in the back of the mansion. One of the maids was walking into the kitchen when she saw Sou, soaked from the walk.

"Good afternoon, Sir! Where were you last night?" This was Miki. She was the personal maid of Sou's father. While she did take care of Sou as well, she mainly focused on his father. She was a very nice person, but it seemed that she was robotic around Sou. Sou could completely predict what she was going to say all the time. He also knew how to deceive her easily.

"Yeah, Miki. I just went out for some food."

"Really? Where did you go? How was the food?"

"Food was okay, but not good enough to remember the restaurant."

"I see. Oh, you're soaked! Did you forget your umbrella again?"

Sou sighed at Miki's bombardment of questions along with her neglection of the fact that staying in a restaurant all night is rather impossible, "Yes, Miki. I forgot my umbrella...AGAIN."

Another maid bellowed from within the kitchen, "Miki? Who is that? Is that Sou?!" A stampeding sandstorm of footsteps rushed towards Sou. The cause: Yomu, Sou's personal caretaker. "Young Shuda!" Yomu yelled as she nudged Miki aside and got in Sou's face. "How dare you not come home for a day and not call us?!"

Sou sighed again. Yomu...was Miki's opposite. She was strict, had a very fiery personality, and was, in many ways, unpredictable. Despite her fiery and unpredictable attitude, she was no older than Miki. In fact, they were siblings born within a year of each other. Sou didn't know either of their ages, but he took an educated guess that Yomu was older.

"You didn't even have an umbrella! How could you be so careless?!"

"Maybe because there wasn't a cloud in the sky?"

"Fool! Be prepared for anything! What if you got sick, or fell, or got run over by a hydroplaning car, or..." Yomu went on and on with her list of ways Sou could've gotten injured / died.

"Right. I'll be more careful next time. I'm going to take a shower, okay?" Sou hastily made his way up the stairs.

"Hey! Wait! I'm not done with you!"

The third floor was where Sou usually spent his time. It was more so his personal floor. He had a large bedroom situated in the back of the mansion, a game room to the right, and a personal bathroom to the left. His dog, a Golden Retriever named Dough, also spent most of its time on this floor. When Sou reached the floor, his dog bolted from inside his room directly to the steps. Sou smiled and rubbed his head. Dough gave him a goofy look while his tongue hung out and ran back to his room.

Sou went to his room as well, but only grabbed a pair of clothes and went to the bathroom to take the shower. After he turned the water to the shower on, he stood in front of the mirror situated above the sink. He took his shirt off to look at the reopened scar the doctors mentioned. Just as the doctors said, there were new stitches where his scar was. The scar spanned from his abs to the underarm of his left arm. He tried to remember what it was that dealt him the scar, but he couldn't remember. He shook his head, ridding himself of the weighty thought and hopped in the shower.

* * *

"Wow! It's really raining hard!" Eri panicked as she ran home in the rain. It was now a downpour, and Eri's sight was severely hindered, even in the daylight. She slowed down to a halt when she got to the overhang of the local movie theater. "Jeez! It's raining really hard! I can hardly see through it all! I'd better call Nakamura." She pulled her cell phone out and texted Nakamura to pick her up at the movie theater.

Almost immediately after she put her cell phone away, a man emerged from the movie theater's rotating glass door. He stood in the center of the overhang, just a few feet away from Eri, and started smoking. He took the cigar away from his mouth and blew a puff of smoke. He laughed, "So what movie did you see, little girl?"

"Um...I didn't see any," she said, holding her hand to her mouth, trying not to breathe in the smoke.

The man took another puff and sighed, "Ah. Me neither. All those movies in there suck. I just come here 'cause it has ashtrays."

"_What a lame excuse. There's ashtrays everywhere...right?"_ Eri thought to herself.

"You know, if I were a moviemaker, I'd make sure to put beautiful actresses in it to attract all sorts of attention. No one likes the moderately good-looking ones...they gotta' be smokin' hot! I'm talkin' about on fire! Someone like you, babe!"

"Uh...thanks," Eri responded.

The man ignored Eri's oblivious response and continued, "Yeah. And they gotta' love motorcycles, too. Mmm...nothin' hotter than a girl on a motercycle, right? You like motorcycles, girly?"

"No," she said flatly.

"Um...okay. Well, that's not too bad. Girls don't hafta' like motorcycles to be hot! They can...uh...like to drink and gamble."

"I don't do any of those."

The man dropped his cigar and crushed it. He faced Eri and whispered in a low voice, "Tch! Just another lame high school girl! Damn! Why do you all have to be so lame and not have fun?"

"_Uh-oh. Looks like he's getting serious. I don't want to anger him...that's the last thing I want to do._" And then, just in time, a limousine pulled up with Nakamura inside. He opened up the car door and walked up to Eri.

"Ah, here you are, Miss. Okay, let's go home!" Nakamura greeted.

"Oh, hello, Nakamura. Thank you for coming to pick me up!"

"Uh...hello?" the man said. No response was directed towards him.

"What say you that we go home?"

"Sure!"

In a storm of rage, the man raised a fist and punched Nakamura in the side. "Don't ignore me!" The man smirked in satisfaction. However, the smirk went away almost as suddenly as it appeared. Nakamura glared at the man and returned his punch with another. The man flew back into the rain and fell unconscious.

"N-Nakamura! Don't you think that was a bit too hard?"

"Sorry. It was a reflex."

"THAT was a reflex?!"

* * *

Sou got out of the shower and dressed himself. He walked into his bedroom, closed the door and jumped into his bed. He switched the TV on and got his cell phone out. He decided to text Laura.

[I went to the hospital today.]

Sou saw that Dough was beside him, so he decided to pet him while texting. A few seconds later, Laura texted back.

[Oh rly? Whod u c?] (Oh, really? Who'd you see?)

[No. I went to the hospital.]

[O. Ow. Y?] (Oh. Ow. Why?)

[Crazy girl ran into me.]

[LOL. Who?] (Audible chuckle. Who?)

[Someone named Tenma.]

[idk. she in r scool?] (I haven't a clue. Is she in our school?)

[I don't know.]

Sou stopped rubbing his dog's head and rolled over to look out the window. It took a few minutes before Laura responded.

[U get soked?] (Did you get soaked?)

[Nah. Some girl walked home with me.]

[ooh. nuther girl? who?] (Ooh! Another girl? Who?)

[Eri...can't remember her last name.]

[Sawachika?]

[Yeah! That's her!]

[o wow! rly? U shard wit eri sawachika?] (Oh, wow! Really? You shared [an umbrella] with Eri Sawachika?)

[Yep. Something wrong?]

[No! never new ud be a babe magnet!] (No! I never knew you'd be a babe magnet!)

Sou chose to end their conversation. Whenever Laura got into her little romance thing, she would begin to list thousands of happy ending with Sou. For example, when he picked up some random girl's purse and gave it back to her, she came up with a happy ending where they'd happen to go to the same school and recognize each other. Then, through time and a relation to start on as a base, they became lovers and married right after they got out of high school.

Dough walked over to where Sou was staring and licked him in the face. Sou laughed and exclaimed, "Alright! Alright! I'll pet you! I'll pet you!"

* * *

Nakamura and Eri arrived at the mansion and walked inside to avoid anymore of the rain. The inside of the mansion was warm, despite the chilling rain and breeze outside.

"It's a very cold day outside, isn't it, Miss?" Nakamura stated, trying to start a conversation.

"Yes. It's very cold. I can't believe how cold it is for Summer!" Eri responded.

"So you agree?"

"Of course!"

"Miss. Where did you go on your walk?"

"Hm? Oh. I just walked around the neighborhood. Passed the hospital, the stores, the movies and such."

"Oh, really?"

"What? Do you think I did more?"

Nakamura nodded.

"No! I did nothing! Nothing at all!"

Nakamura stared at Eri intently until she finally caved-in under pressure.

"Okay! I saw a classmate and helped him walk home in the rain."

"'Him?'"

"Sou Shuda."

"Ah. The son of Tazewo Shuda, I see...If I'm not mistaken, his father was given a job in a fast-growing store chain. He eventually rose up to be the big boss of the company and started making a lot of money. His amount of money earned comes nowhere near ours, but it's still quite a hefty sum for one who used to live in a trailer park."

"A trailer park? Really?"

"Yes. Back then, Sou's mother left his father for personal reasons. I believe that is was caused by money."

"Yeah. He told me that."

"You talked with him?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"I'm sorry, Miss. It sounded as if I was accusing you of something when I wasn't."

"It's okay."

"Anyways, I'm assuming you haven't eaten. What would you like for lunch, Miss?"

"Just a sandwich."

"What kind?"

"Turkey."

"Ok. I will ask the cooks right away."

"I'll be in my room."

"Yes, Miss."

As she stated, Eri went to her room and sat down on her bed. She got out her cell phone and noticed a new text message from Mikoto Suou, one of her best friends.

[Hey. Who wer u walkin wit?] (Hey. Who were you walking with?)

"Oh crap."

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**AN: HUGE SUCCESS. Not really. Just wanted to throw in that reference. Anyways, this is where some of the misunderstanding comes into play (finally). The next chapter will hold some slightly significant stuff, but won't be too long. Oh, by the way, this chapter is about 500 words more than the last one. Yay. The next one won't be too long. I'm still trying to keep them to a reasonable length to be read in one sitting, because no one likes to read super long chapters. (generalization? Yes. Lots of people like reading longer chapters, actually.)**


	4. Eavesdropping

**Disclaimer: Nay, I do not own anything involved with the original series School Rumble. They are owned by Jin Koboyashi.**

**AN: I know it may sound somewhat arrogant or something, but I'll say it anyways: I'd really like a review. If you see something that you'd like to point out, by all means review and tell me. Anyways, I'd like to say that I personally think the story is going along rather well (/arrogance). The real story, however, hasn't started. It actually starts in this chapter. Note that I lied in one of my notes, and that this chapter is actually going to be longer, most likely. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it.**

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**Chapter 4**

Eavesdropping

**--------------------------------------------------------------**

The afternoon quickly shifted to nightfall as Eri explained to Mikoto about Sou. The night soon became morning as the sun rose from the horizon and broke through the clouds. The puddles that gathered on the streets have dissolved and left dark markings on the asphalt. The morning birds chirped their upbeat tunes that only made sense to them.

It was seven o' clock when Sou finally broke out of his sleep spell. He looked over at the digital clock lying next to his bed and mumbled, "Too early," and fell back asleep. He woke up again at ten o' clock and looked over at the clock. "Still too early."

"Shuda! It is NOT too early! Breakfast has been made!"

Sou sighed and literally rolled out of bed. "Jeez, Yomu. Dinner should be damned good if you woke me up this early," Sou mumbled to himself as if he were talking to Yomu.

Sou made his way to the kitchen to eat. The plate before him held a basic breakfast: half the plate was taken up by scrambled eggs, while the other half occupied some sausage links and a big pile of hashed browns. A smaller plate to the side had english muffins with a jar of strawberry jam placed next to it. Sou didn't care for the breakfast, but the pile of hashed browns caught his eye.

"I don't like hashed browns."

"Too bad, they're good for you."

"I don't want 'em."

"Then you can starve."

Sou sighed at Yomu's simplistic ways to force him to eat his food. Several minutes went by as Sou devoured the eggs, the sausage links, and the english muffins. All that towered before him were the hashed browns. Sou looked around the see if Yomu was watching. In the single second she wasn't watching, Sou tossed his hashed browns in the trash.

"That was some pretty good breakfast, Yomu."

"If I find any hashed browns in the trash, you're eating out of it."

Silently, Sou took the bag of trash out and replaced it with a new one. He then threw on a shirt and jeans and sstarted to make his way out the door.

"Where are you going?" Yomu interrogated.

"I'm going out, as usual."

"You go out so often."

"That's what normal boys do, Yomu," Sou responded. He knew Yomu always wanted Sou to be a well-mannered "normal boy". It was usually his excuse to get out of everything.

"Not this much! But whatever. Do whatever you think is 'normal,'" Yomu responded.

"Ok, then. Later."

Sou was still hungry, actually. Yomu didn't put much of eggs and sausage on his plate, and nearly covered it with hashed browns. Sou's stomach grumbled loudly as he walked around the city by himself. When he came upon a restaurant, and his stomach growled louder than ever before, he couldn't help but walk inside.

Now, Sou was normally okay in restaurants by himself. He could order whatever he wanted and knew how to tip. Unfortunately, when he walked in, the first person he saw...was Harima himself.

Harima Kenji. The whole reason behind why Sou was feeling lost. He never came into contact with him or got in the way of what he was doing. He was hardly aware of his existance until he realized that no one notices Sou because of Harima. Whatever he did was considered "copying Harima", or "too simplistic" to be realized.

Harima was sitting at a table, scribbling on some sort of paper that Sou didn't pay attention to. He was wearing a garish red beret as he focused intently on the paper. A waiter came over to him to ask for his order, and he shooed him away immediately by giving him a "stink eye" through his sunglasses.

Sou took a seat in a booth near Harima. It was close to Harima, so Sou could hear, but Harima couldn't see him. A waiter came over almost immediately and asked Sou what he wanted.

"Coffee. Black coffee."

"Okay, sir. I'll bring it out right away."

Sure enough, the waiter came out only seconds after he went to fetch the coffee. The steaming coffee filled the air with such an overwhelming aroma. Sou took a whiff and looked out the window.

"It's still overcast? Dang. Guess I'll have no use for these again today," he said, referring to his sunglasses. He peered over the top of the booth to spy on Harima, who was still wearing his sunglasses. "How? How does he do it? How can you possibly wear your sunglasses ALL DAY?" he mumbled to himself.

Suddenly, the door to the entrance of the restaurant swung open, causing a bell to chime. Four teenage girls walked in, and as soon as Sou saw them all, he whipped around in his seat and looked back at his table. He immediately recognized them.

The first one was Eri Sawachika, who walked in with an energetic step while she talked with her friends. Immediately behind her was her exact opposite: Tenma. She stumbled into the room with about as much grace as a monkey. She walked in the group with a cheerful, yet completely aloof look. Sou's ears perked up when he heard the phrase, "Hey, is that Harima?" from someone within the group.

"Hey! Harima!"

"Oh! Hey, Tenma!" Harima greeted, raising his hand and then quickly lowering it to commence doing whatever he was doing.

Eri knelt over trying to see what he was doing, and Harima turned in his chair so he still had a decent amount of space to work on, but keep Eri from seeing. "Hey, Hige, what are you doing?"

"Nonya' business," he replied flatly. Sou took note of how he was talking while still completely dodging Eri's intrusions.

Eri walked around the opposite way, trying to see what he was doing, but Harima did the exact same thing, dodging her view with his back. Eri continually walked around the table while the other three watched, laughing slightly at the sight.

"What is it?!" Eri let out finally.

"Just as I said, 'Nonya business,'" Harima repeated equally flat.

"What's so important that you have to hide it? C'mon, just let me see!" Eri said, sort of imitating a bully.

"No," Harima responded childishly, and he repeated the process of pivoting to show only his back to Eri.

Eri sighed heavily and said to the girls, "C'mon, let's find a seat. That booth looks okay."

Sou's body contorted and shook at the sound of the whole group walking over to see Sou. But then he realized he wasn't supposed to care, so he loosened up and started sipping his coffee to make it look like he wasn't listening in at all. He sipped and sipped and sipped until he had to look over to see if they were coming. To his surprise, they actually sat in the booth across from him, and didn't notice him at all.

"_God damn...this is even worse!"_ Sou thought. He finished his coffee and had nothing else to do.

"Ugh, I hate that Hige!" Sou overheard Eri say. Considering he could hear them all the way over there, he decided to take out his cell phone and look as if he was doing something while he listened-in.

"Who? Harima? Why?" Tenma asked, unaware of Eri's hatred towards Harima.

"He's just so...arrogant!" Eri responded.

"You know, you are too," on of Eri's friends said. This was Mikoto Suou, whom Sou didn't know of.

"What?! No I'm not!"

"Tch. Right. Anyways, you need to tell me about that guy you were walking with in the rain yesterday!" Mikoto said.

"Huh?! Eri was walking in the rain with a guy?!"

"That means they must've shared an umbrella," the fourth girl in the group added. This was Akira, who was also unknown to Sou.

"OOH! That's right!" Mikoto exclaimed excitingly. Mikoto, apparently, was one to get into gossip.

"Umm, well..."

"_She won't admit it. No way. Not when it was with me," _Sou thought to himself. Naturally, he had the feeling that no one wished to be around him, which was okay to him.

"Yuh...Yes..." she admitted. Sou nearly crushed his phone at the shock of her admittance.

"OOH! You did, did you?!" Mikoto exclaimed, almost leaning over the whole table.

"Oh, wow, Eri! Way to go!" Tenma joined in, also almost leaning over the table.

"Yeah, but it was because he didn't have an umbrella. I mean, I knew him, so I had to. It's just common courtesy of being a fellow classmate, right?"

"Yeah, not really," Mikoto shot down. She giggled, "So he's a classmate, huh? Then I REALLY need to know! Who was it? Huh? Huh? HUH?!"

"Um...it was...no...I can't tell you."

"C'mon! Who was it?!" Tenma begged.

"_C'mon, Eri...you won't tell...right?"_ Sou thought.

"Just spit it out! You have nothing to lose!"

"Um...it...was..."

"_You won't tell, Eri, right?"_

"It was..."

"_RIGHT?!"_ Sou was now sweating with angst and he stared with fear at his cell phone.

Eri was searching around the whole entire room until her eyes caught one specific target. She stopped trembling, and then she responded, "It was Hige."

Mikoto and Tenma instantaneously sat down. "Oh, I can see why you didn't want to tell."

"It was pretty embarrassing," Eri said, going along with the lie she made.

"_Tch. Good job, Eri."_ Sou congratulated. His sweating stopped, and the fear from his face faded away.

"Hey, look at that guy over there! He's been texting for a long time, hasn't he?" Tenma whispered. Although it was a whisper, Tenma could never keep quiet enough to not be heard.

"Didn't I see that guy somewhere?"

Sou began to sweat again, the the fearful expression crept back into his face. What should he do? What COULD he do? He couldn't ignore Tenma's remark, or else they'd keep staring at him until he put his phone down. If he answered, he'd be found out. Either way, they'd figure out who he was, so he went with the less humiliating one.

He swiftly reached inside his pocket and placed his sunglasses on his head. He then systematically lowered his phone and stared at the group. He raised an eyebrow and began fake-texting again.

"Hey! It's Sou!" Tenma shouted. "Hi, Sou!"

Sou's grip on his cell phone loosened to a point where it slipped out of his grasp and slowly fell to the ground.

"_Just now...I felt something..."_ he thought to himself. His cell phone flipped and twisted in mid-air as it barely missed the table and continued falling. _"It felt as if...as if something very dynamic just happened."_ The phone flipped over and over again, getting closer and closer to the cold ground. _"It's as if...Tenma's voice..."_ The cell phone hit the floor, and its battery flew out of the back, _"was a time bomb!"_

Sure enough, a loud bang followed Tenma's cheerful greeting. Sou could definitely tell that it was Harima pounding his table in anger. Sou stared blankly at the four girls, who were returning his blank stare.

"Why are you wearing your sunglasses?" Tenma asked. "It isn't THAT bright in here!"

Sou shed his sunglasses and kept staring expressionlessly. His cold blue eyes fixated on the group. They were giving him strange looks and whispered back and forth. Sou had to say something. "Hey. What is it?"

"Oh, nothing. Anyways, these are our friends: Akira and Mikoto!" Tenma introduced.

"Hey," Sou repeated.

"Hey," Akira answered. To Sou, Akira looked JUST like Yomu, just the exact opposite personality. Calm, cool, and quiet, Akira didn't say much else past "Hey," but that's all she needed to say.

"Hey," Mikoto mimicked. Mikoto was, what looked like, a completely normal schoolgirl. Average height, medium-length hair, larger-than-average measurements. She was either the definition of schoolgirl or secretary.

"...Hey," Sou said, slightly unsure of if they were making fun of him or not.

"Sorry about yesterday," Tenma apologized.

"That's alright. Nothing too big. Just hurt a little bit."

"Wait, what happened yesterday?" Mikoto asked.

"Uuuuhhhh...remember when I was talking about the person I ran over? That's him."

"WHAT?! YOU ran him over? So that's why he was at the Hospital!" Eri said, without fully realizing what she said immediately. When she finally did, she hit herself on the forehead.

"Oh, so you know him, too, Eri?" Mikoto teased. "And exactly how did you know he was at the hospital without knowing why he'd be there?"

"Uh...um..." Eri mumbled.

The moment...was way too embarrassing. Sou had to get out of there, "Hey, look...I better get going. Later." Sou got up from his booth and walked towards the door without any other word. He noticed that Harima was gone. He also noticed that he forgot to pay for the black coffee...

...He didn't really care.

**--------------------------------------------------------------**

**AN: Thank you for reading this sorta long chapter. If you like these longer chapters, then you'll be happy to know that there'll be more at some time in your life. Also, please review and tell me how it is. Oh, by the way, I ALMOST didn't make this deadline. I got a new puppy this week AND it was the final week of Marching Band. We got second, but we weren't even a point behind the first place AAAA band. Last year, we were five points behind. Improvement? Si.**


	5. Invitation

**Disclaimer: Everything related to the original School Rumble series belongs to Jin Kobayashi.**

**AN: And so marks the fifth chapter mark. I've also hit the 100 View mark, which I'm happy to get, considering that it hasn't even been a month since I've released this story. Thank you, to all viewers. I've also got my first review and favorite! That makes me SUPER happy. Now, this chapter also marks the beginning of the story arc that I'd like to call Catharsis (look up the word if you want to know what it means). The story now SPLIIIIITS between Harima and Sou. Sorry for the lack of commentary, I have nothing else to say.**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Invitation

_Part 1 of Catharsis_

* * *

Sou walked back home alone. The clouds above him congregated, drifted, and then darkened. At his gate, he could hear thunder in the distance. He rushed inside. As soon as he shut the door, drops of rain bled from the sky and cascaded down to the earth. Sou smirked at his ever-so-great timing and hung up his leather jacket.

Before Sou could take another step, however, Yomu stopped him. "Young Master Shuda!" Yomu bellowed. Sou cringed, thinking that she would terrorize him because he neglected to eat his hashed browns. "A letter arrived for you in the mail," Yomu announced, to Sou's surprise. She handed him a plain envelope without a stamp on it. There wasn't even a return address.

Normally, Sou would've cast the letter away immediately, however, the subject was very intriguing. It read: "Please Join Us in the Rumble". Sou's gut roared suddenly, making Sou think twice about opening the letter. Completely neglecting his get instinct, he decided to open the envelope anyways.

Dear Sou Shuda,

We invite you to the ever infamous "School Rumble." This School Rumble is between the Yagami High School and Kotonomamori High School. This "Rumble" is where students duke it out in certain competitions to see which school reigns supreme. These challenges include relays, sports, and one-on-one matches. This Rumble takes place on the twentieth at the Kotonomamori High School.

Hope to see you there,

Kotonomamori High.

Sou looked at it and couldn't help but laugh. He laughed so hard that he had to throw his head back to keep him from falling to the floor. When he finally lowered his head, his eyes had changed. They were sharper, colder. They looked like diamonds that had been hidden away in the deepest corner that miners overlooked. They twinkled with such a fiery passion that lit up to a blinding brightness.

"Good thing. I've been itching for something exciting. The twentieth is only a few days away. Better get prepared," he said with a devilish grin. "Yomu, I'm going out again. See you later."

"Not without an umbrella!" Yomu ordered.

Sou turned around only to have an umbrella thrown right at his face. "Watch it!"

"I wouldn't be saying that if I were in your position," Yomu warned. "You're going to get an extra helping of hashed browns tomorrow. Just go."

"R...Right."

Sou stepped out of the house and fanned out the umbrella. He walked with an extreme swagger down to the gate, completely unaware that his umbrella had a teddy bear print.

* * *

Harima exited the restaurant in a fume of anger. Tenma's overly cheerful and friendly nature wound up indirectly angering Harima once again. After she said "Hello!" to another guy and started having a familiar conversation with him, Harima couldn't stand it. He left without eating or drinking anything.

"It was a bad idea anyways," he sighed. He was referring to trying to illustrate his new manga in the restaurant, but was interrupted by Tenma and Eri. "Damn it! How come wherever I go, THEY have to show up? It'd be okay if Tenma was the only one who came, but why does Ojou, Quiet Girl, and Suou have to come as well? AGH! This is so annoying! And who was that guy Tenma was talking to? I never even heard of th' guy!" Harima punched a nearby wall in anger, creating an indentation. Harima walked home with a sort of lumbering motion within his step. He did this whenever he got angry.

It was only a few minutes later when Harima could finally see his "home". However, although it was in sight, it was atleast another ten minute walk. A little drop fell onto Harima's skin. He stopped for a second and let out his palm to check if it was raining. He waited and waited for a drop until a massive amount of rain poured down from the dark clouds above. "Damn!" Harima's lumbering step became progressively larger.

The relentless rain continuously cascaded down from the blackened clouds above. The sudden burst of rain already created large puddles and streams that ran down the sides of the roads. With Harima's truding footsteps, he sloshed through the puddles with great lag and slowness. Harima was so enraged by the unfolding of events this day that he didn't notice the person walking by him. He accidentally kicked up a large waves from a puddle and soaked the bypasser's side.

"Hey! How's about you watch where you're going?!" the man yelled.

Harima turned around and noticed a teddy bear printing on the man's umbrella. He also noticed that the man wasn't really a man, he was just a boy. A boy around Harima's age, no less. They stared each other down for what seemed like hours, but it was only mere seconds. Names started swirling around in Harima's mind, trying to come up with his opponent's name.

"Yoshidayama?"

"No."

"Nara?"

"No."

"_Think, Harima! He's gotta be someone you know!"_ Harima thought. "Harry MacKenzie?"

"Nowhere close."

"Tougou?"

"NO!"

"Then who the hell are you?!"

"My name is Sou Shuda. You should really know your classmates more, Harima Kenji."

And for that very instant, the rain seemed as if it increased in amount. Harima filed through his brain, trying to find something on Sou, but nothing came up...that is, until he remembered the Cafe.

"You!" Harima yelled, pointing a finger at Sou. "You were at that Cafe, weren't you?"

"If you're talking about the Mariyachima Cafe, then yes."

"And you were talking with Tenma?"

"Yes."

"HOW DARE YOU!?!"

"Uh...excuse me?"

"HOW DARE YOU!?!" Harima repeated. And then suddenly, for no apparent reason, Harima charged at Sou and jabbed at him. Sou looked down upon the jab and quickly dodged.

"Picking a fight?" Sou asked.

"No! I just wanna hit you!" Harima yelled, not fully aware of what he was saying. He jabbed at Sou again, who mimicked his last motion. "Stop it! Just stand still!"

"What makes you think I'll do that?" Sou asked angrily.

"Take this!!!" Harima yelled as he charged directly after Sou once again. He jabbed with his left like last time, and Sou dodged. However, after the jab he swung down to the ground and raised his leg slightly, sweeping his leg from left to right. The sweep kick hit Sou in the side of the leg hard, but he didn't go down.

"Damn! That's some kick!" Sou cringed.

"You're pretty strong to withstand that kick," Harima complimented, starting to get up and face his opponent. "But you've got a long way to go before you can even hope to beat me."

Then, without any warning, Sou quickly jabbed at Harima's chest and knocked him backwards. Harima absorbed the blow, but cringed in the sudden pain. "What's with that?"

"You got a hit in, so I got a hit in."

"That's not how it works, damn it!" Harima cried as he dashed towards Sou with an obvious full-body tackle. Instead of dodging, Sou stepped forward with his leg slightly. When Harima was close enough, he pivoted on that foot and placed his hands on Harima's shoulder blade. With this combination, the oaf went down with a thud. "Why, you!" he cried.

"There's no use fighting right now. Although I'd love to kick the crap out of that smug face of yours, I'd much rather prefer not to fight in the rain," Sou stated. And, as if Harima's opinion didn't matter, Sou walked away.

"Damn that guy! I'll get you for this!" Harima yelled as he dashed back home. When he got under an overhanging roof of the apartment, he started mumbling about his Hurricane Kick. "He's SO lucky I didn't use it, or else he'd be on the floor in pain. But...damn! He knows how to fight! Next time, I'll use it right off the bat and he won't know what to do. Yeah! That's what I'll do! But...I don't even know when I'll see him again."

When he got into his apartment, he noticed that his cousin wasn't in, and there was still mail on the floor. "Ugh, Itoko. You should really take more care! Make me do all the work," he grumbled. His face was coarse and cold until he found the invitation. The same invitation Sou had received. "School Rumble between Yagami and Kotonomamori? Interesting. Hey, wait! Didn't that guy say he's in my school?" He crunched up the letter and smiled deviously. "That's when I'll get 'im! In the School Rumble!" he snickered. "He'll definitely be there!"

* * *

**AN: Oh boy. End of the fifth chapter, but the beginning of A WHOLE NEW ARC. The next chapter will hold some very interesting things that most of you will like to read.**


	6. PepTalk

**Disclaimer: Nothing except for this story's plot and all of my Original Characters. The rest belongs to Jin Kobayashi.**

**AN: Yes, I missed a week, but that was with a well-timed notice. You'll also get a double update this week most likely, unless I crap out (which I doubt). Oh, I've decided upon a FanFiction that's completely different from the ones that I suggested to myself: Spore. It's going to be a one-shot for now, and that's why it'll be released while making this story. I won't do the other ones until I finish this one, as it's too difficult. The only way I'd do it is if I changed the release schedule to every other week. That'd be sorta counter-productive, so I won't do that. But anyways, on with the much longer chapter involving a lot of talking between characters! I'll make sure to make it exciting. This chapter is Sou-centric.**

**Chapter 6**

Pep-Talk

_Part 2 of Catharsis_

The rain continued to flood the land. Water droplets cascaded down from the heavens and smacked into the buildings, the cement, the asphalt, the grass...everything. The sound of them striking the obstacles sounded like beads falling into a wood flooring.

Sou started to pass through the park. It was ten minutes since he battled Harima, and he was finally starting to feel the pain from his opponent. The one kick he landed didn't hurt too much upon impact, but the pain began to pile up as Sou moved more and more. His movement began to slow to a limp as he spotted a bench and decided to rest.

He didn't mind that the bench was wet, he just needed to sit down. His whole side twitched and throbbed after doing so, but he endured the pain and looked up towards the sky. "I don't even remember where I was going. The pain distracted me," he laughed pitifully. His voice was weary, and he gasped from the pain. "Damn it all to hell! If I have to compete with that kinda' guy, then I'm going to have to work on making fights quick! But then I'll be wide-open to attacks in the next match! Ugh! There's no strategy in his fighting method whatsoever! It's just a straight-forward attack method that he hopes will hit!"

"Sou? Is that you?" a familiar voice called to him. It was a girl's voice from what Sou could tell.

"Yep. It's me. Who is it?" Sou called back. He saw the slender figure of a teenager girl in front of his umbrella, but her head was cut off by the top of the umbrella. He tilted the object up and stared at his visitor. "Ah, hello, Laura!" he greeted cheerfully.

"Hey, Sou! Man, you look beat! What happened?" Laura asked, leaning over and examining Sou with her large brown eyes.

"Got in a fight."

"Again? Who was it this time?"

"Harima Kenji."

"Harima?! Why?" Laura practically screamed.

Sou mumbled, "Damn, even Laura knows about Harima..." He made room for Laura to sit on the bench and she took the offer. Sou looked at her and said, "He's tough."

"Duh," Laura responded flatly.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well, if Harima is notorious as a fighter, then he's obviously going to be powerful, right?"

"Right...but...he's more powerful than I thought!"

"Well, that's what you get for being cocky. It's just like if a freshman were to pick on a much taller, much tougher senior; they'd be beaten for sure. It's almost inevitable," she explained. She pulled out two candy bars from her blue jeans and offered one to Sou.

"No thank you. Not too big on sweets."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Laura opened one of the candy bars and began to eat it while she placed the other one back in her pocket. "So...how bad did he beat you?"

"Not at all. In fact, I think it might've been a tie. We sorta just walked away from each other."

"I see. Well, atleast you weren't beaten, right?"

"Right...but there's something much more dangerous than losing that battle," Sou sighed emptily.

"What's that?"

"His battle tactics...are unorthodox and have no particular pattern...he's just like those gang members," he pointed out.

"You beat them all the time, so what are you worried about? Plus, it's not like you'll be fighting him again, right?"

"No, I am fighting him again. That's a fact. It'll be at the upcoming School Rumble."

"I see...so...what are you scared for?"

"I'm afraid I might have to go all out on him."

The rain seemed to go on forever. The wind was now ripping branches off trees and hurling them far away from their home. However, the two friends still sat and talked with each other.

"Hey. Do you remember that one time?" Laura questioned.

"What time?"

"When you saved me?"

"Hah! You're gonna' hafta' be more specific then that! I can't recall ALL the times I saved you!" Sou chuckled.

Laura swiftly slapped Sou on the back of the head and continued, "When we were little. It was in the playground. It was how we became friends."

"Hm? Oh! Right. I remember that! Wasn't that Yoshidayama trying to pick on you?"

"Yeah. He was a very scary person at the time! And you knew it!"

"Haha. I went into that battle knowing full-well of that. Turned out he wasn't anything," Sou reminisced. A large grin carved into his face.

"And when you saw him picking on me, you just went over to him and shoved him to the ground saying, 'You hurt her again, and I'll rip that hair right out of your head!'" Laura quoted.

"Did I say that? Damn. I sure was violent back then." Sou smiled cheerfully in the midst of the rain.

"It worked, though. That cowardly Yoshidayama just got up and ran crying. He never picked on me ever again!"

"Yeah, and he should definitely keep to that word. I'll still rip out that hair of his if he ever picks on you," Sou threatened Yoshidayama as if he were there.

"Hehe. I swear...that day...I think I fell in love with you," Laura sighed and looked up at the sky.

"What was that?"

"It was a joke. Calm down," Laura giggled. Sou joined the laughter, and they both laughed heartily through the rainy day. It was quite the sight...seeing two people sitting on the bench laughing their brains out.

But something was wrong. Sou felt a sudden sharp pinch on his lower left side. He stopped laughing and thrust forward, grasping his side. He dropped the umbrella and his knees fell to the cold, wet ground. He let out a quiet, yet painful wheeze.

"What's wrong?!" Laura asked, kneeling down beside Sou to give him support. "Is it you leg?"

"No! My...side," Sou gestured by looking down at his right hand grasping his side. He let his hand go from the grasp and examined it. Fresh blood painted his whole palm. His eyes widened in distress. He suddenly felt a light-headedness come over him and fell to the ground unconscious. The rain around the two teens fell just like a waterfall, and the winds picked up to a rapid speed as the world faded from Sou's sight.

- + -

Sou awoke back inside his own bed. He looked towards the window and saw that the sun was shining brightly, and the birds were flying freely outside. He looked over to his opposite side and saw Laura staring at him with her long brown hair dangling down in his eyes.

"Laura!" Sou exclaimed. He attempted to sit up, but he couldn't move without a sheer pain in his side.

"I see that you're up! I'll go alert Yomu!" Laura said.

"W...Wait a minute! Laura!" Sou pleaded. He held his arm out as if he could reach Laura, but she was already exiting the room, and the attempt was rendered useless. Sou lay his head back down on the pillow in fear of what Yomu would say.

Heavy footsteps paraded up the stairs, and sweat constantly dropped from Sou's forehead. He waited for the yelling to begin, but Miki entered in her stead.

"Miki? Where's Yomu?" Sou asked.

"Yomu left yesterday. She said she had a job interview in another city and that she also has some family over there. She's spending the next week there, so you're Yomu free until the twenty-fourth!" Miki exclaimed as if it were a good thing.

Sou sighed and her sweating stopped. "I wish she would've told me," he murmured. "Almost gave me a heart attack when Laura said she'd go get Yomu."

"Well, since you're up, what would you like for breakfast?"

"Not hungry."

"Okay, then. I'll check up on you later," Miki said cheerfully.

"You sure you aren't hungry?" Laura asked.

"Yes. I'm sure. Hey, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"Get out."

"What?"

"I need to think about something, and I need privacy. Please leave!" Sou said with a frustrated tone in his voice. His eyes were as cold as steel, yet a passion burned deep within them. Something was on his mind.

"Oh! You're doing THAT sorta thing? Eww. I'll just be going now." Laura skipped out of the room.

"I wonder what's so gross about thinking up a battle strategy?" Sou pondered. He lay back down in his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"He's fast, strong, and, above all, fueled by anger. I need to think of a way to get around his battle strategy. Hmm..."

Sou sat up, ignoring the pain in his side and placed his hand on his chin. He hummed a small tune as he thought about it. "Well, I can't think of anything complex at the moment. Let's think of it simply...

...In a simple game of 'Rock-Paper-Scissors,' Rock beats Scissors, while Scissors beats Paper, and Paper beats Rock. Rocks are usually more associated with power and bulkiness. They also don't use their minds, so...Harima is definitely classified as Rock. So, what beats him is Paper. Paper is frail and flimsy, but sharp and very agile...The basic term that describes Paper would be a glass bullet; powerful to an extent, and very difficult to hit, but breaks upon contact with a hard wall. With that information...

...One kick...that's all it'll take for Harima to defeat me properly. That's the main thing I need to avoid. So...how will I hit him? His defense seems rather solid, as his fists are fast. The only way I can remotely hurt him is if I trip him. That won't be good if he sticks his ground. So a rock going onto a defensive pose...is just like switching from a Rock-style of fighting to a Scissor-style of fighting! Using Paper against Scissors is just useless. Those who use the Paper-style of fighting won't be able to hit the Scissors, as they'd be more dependant on a straight-forward attempt! So, at that point, one must switch to Rock!

I got it! So...exactly when in the fight can I do that? Both his punches and kicks seem relatively fast. When does he drop his guard? While running, of course, but he gets up quickly from throws. The throws also seem rather ineffective. So, the only other point in which he lowers his guard is when he...uses that kick of his! Yes! That kick is just like a Jolt Punch: the user uses their whole body to swing at the opponent! After Jolts, the user is left wide-open. That's when I strike. That'll make him switch to Scissors while I play Paper around the field. When I get close enough, I'll just burst through and shower him with a flurry of punches! Hehe...and I got the perfect strategy for this, too!"

Sou smiled at the rising sun and stood up in his bed. The pain seemed to lift from his body. He started to laugh moniacally at his plan to defeat Harima.

Meanwhile, Laura and Miki were both sitting by the door listening in. "You know what he's laughing about?" Miki asked.

"No, I don't, but it's probably dumb."

**AN: Decided to make a Spore Fanfiction. A One-Shot that'll bound to be good to atleast me. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I also apologize about that wall-o-text towards the end. It was necessary.**


	7. Just a WarmUp

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing in School Rumble. It all belongs to Jin Kobayashi.**

**AN: I see that quite a few people looked at my story regardless of it being Thanksgiving. That makes me feel quite special. Anyways, a little bit of info on this chapter: There's a time-skip! That's right! A time-skip! It's a very short time-skip, but it's a time-skip nonetheless. It'll start right on the day of the School Rumble, and that's all I'll tell you. Enjoy.**

**NOTE: The significance of the new characters introduced is just to give information, comedy relief, and just so it doesn't get confusing. They will not appear in any arc outside of Catharsis.**

**Chapter 7**

Just a Warm-Up

_Part 3 of Catharsis_

The light of the day stealthily rose above the horizon and shone its rays all across the region. The glorious rays of the benevolent Sun shone with such brilliance that stirred the young Sou from his slumber. He walked over towards his window and watched the sunrise. The thought of the School Rumble made him anxious. He gave a simple half-smile and changed for the day ahead.

The walk to Kotonomamori High was only a little ways from Yagami High. Sou thought that he needed a work-out before the Rumble, so he ran the whole three miles to get there. He arrived there completely out of breath and almost fell over from exhaustion.

"Who's that?" someone from the crowd asked.

"I don't know. He must be from Yagami, cause I haven't seen him around," another responded.

"Tch. Looks like a weakling to me!" another spoke up.

"Well, you could say that about all of the Yagami High students, George," the first voice remarked.

"Sara, it's not nice to pick on such savage weaklings. You have to be more polite and whisper it," the second voice mocked.

"Okay, Ken, how about this?!" Sara whispered, but with a very noticeable volume.

"Hey, you guys know where the check-in list is?" Sou asked out of breath.

Behind giggles, Sara answered, "Yeah, they're right over there...next to the entrance." She pointed Sou in the direction, and he followed. Suddenly, Sara burst out in laughter. "He looks like a stupid monkey! A stupid monkey! He's also outta' breath before his match! What a loser!"

"I don't know, Sara, he looks relatively intimidating close-up," Ken warned.

"Stupid monkey, right, George?"

"Yeah, stupid monkey!" George joined in.

At the check-in counter, Sou rang the little bell at the counter, and a recognizable young lady came out.

"Laura?!" Sou gasped.

"Oh, hey, Sou! Are you signing up for your match?" she asked.

"Yeah, but why are you here? This Kotonomamori High. You shouldn't be the check-in list girl!"

"Well, the actual check-in list girl and I are best friends. She just went to get something to eat. Although that was a while ago."

"Whatever. Lemme just sign in here..."

"Oh! Your match starts in a few minutes!"

"Really?! But...I'm still outta breath! When's it start?"

"Now!" Laura said cheerfully. And almost as if her voice were a trigger, the bell rang three times signifying the match was over.

"Sou Shuda and George Harrison, please enter the ring for your matches," Laura said over the speaker. "I guess you're up, Sou. Go get him!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get him."

The two comabatents entered the ring, which was actually a box-like arena similar to a boxing ring, but the area was bigger and there weren't any ropes. The amphitheater-like seating was filled to the very top with cheering fans from both of the contenders' schools.

Sou and his opponent came closer together to meet. When Sou saw his opponent up-close, he realized that it was the person from the entrance.

"Yeah! Go get him, George! Strangle that stupid monkey!" Sara cheered above the rest of the crowd. George smiled and blushed. He flashed a confident thumbs-up to Sara's general direction and faced his opponent.

Compared to Sou, this guy was just a bit taller. However, he was also quite a bit thicker than Sou. He wasn't necessarily fat, but he was about two times Sou's size. His arm muscles bulged as he looked into Sou's eyes. He smiled and said, "I'm going to crush you, Stupid Monkey."

Sou smiled back and said, "Now, c'mon. Hurting yourself isn't always the way out of things."

"Ah, I see that the Stupid Monkey is capable of clever comebacks. Well, it's time to shut that mouth of his."

"Bring it on, Tubby."

The bell signalling the fight to begin rang, and the fight began almost immediately. George thrust out, attempting to tackle Sou to the ground, but Sou sidestepped to avoid it.

"That's your first move? Way to make yourself wide open!" Sou remarked as he stuck his foot out and kicked George back. Apparently the kick didn't phase George all too much, as he tried the tackle once again. "Repeat offense! Time to face a more severe punishment!" This time, Sou did an uppercut-like move with his foot and impacted with George's chest. He slowly pushed George up from the ground and had him land flat on the floor a few feet from where he was previously.

"C'mon, George! You can do better than that!" Sara yelled.

"Calm down, Sara. George knows what he's doing. With this technique, he's simply trying to discover his opponent's speed and power. Just look at that smirk on his face. He already knows he can take him down easily," Ken pointed out. Indeed, George was smirking.

George locked onto Sou and threw a punch with all of his might. Sou easily dodged it and shook his head. "Falling for the same thing every time. Throwing jolts isn't going to get you anywhere!" he advised. Sou pulled his arm back to prepare a swing, but was stopped by his opponent's sudden shift in balance. Sou hopped back twice to avoid an extremely dangerous jolt.

"Scared me a bit there, Georgey," Sou complimented as he cracked his knuckles. "But it wasn't enough!"

Sou dove down underneath George's fists and launched an upper-cut straight to George's jaw. Unfortunately, George's hands stopped the attack. He sighed and pushed down on Sou's arm. "Stupid Monkey is battle-smart. However, is the battle-monkey capable of actually fighting?!" George thrust his knee into Sou's chest and sent him flying back.

"Yeah! That's right! You got him good, George! Keep at it!" Sara yelled

Sou cringed in pain from the attack, but the cringe morhped into laughter as Sou stood up and faced his opponent again. His eyes were just as they were when he received the invitation. Their cold, yet extremely aura burned through George's will to attack, and forced him into defense.

"What are you doing?! Attack!" Sara commanded.

"Sara, calm down. You aren't in the ring currently. If you were George, you may be doing the exact same thing. Just look at his eyes. Do those look like the eyes of a normal human in a street fight?"

"What? His eyes? I don't wanna look at them! C'mon, George! Get outta that dumb-looking defensive stance and attack!"

"_That's easy for her to say! She isn't on this battlefield like me...If she was, she would've been scared out of her wits, too! This guy is fierce!"_ George thought to himself.

"What? Defensive? Oh, what a pity...I wanted to feel more of that jolt of yours. Too bad, I guess," Sou complained. Suddenly, he dashed straight towards George and delivered a jolt of his own. Even through the defensive stance and thickness, George flew back into the wall. Everyone gasped at Sou's amazing power. George remained still against the wall with blood that trickled out of the corner of his mouth.

"C'mon, George! Don't take that!"

With an extreme burst of adrenaline, George jumped from the wall and full-on ran at Sou. Instead of continuing the run, he stopped just before getting to Sou and spun around a kick. Sou blocked it with ease and pushed it back. He prepared to punch George again, but George threw yet another jolt and connected. Sou flew back and slid on the ground. He lost his balance towards the end of the slide and fell.

George trudged over towards him and loomed over him like a giant. "So how were you suddenly able to come up with that, huh?" Sou asked, intrigued in the sudden boost of strategy.

"Unlike you, I have something precious that I'm fighting for."

"And what's that?"

"You know that girl cheering for me? Well, we've been friends for years, and if I win this battle, I'll ask her on a date."

"So what'll happen when you lose?"

George grinned, "I won't lose." He charged up another jolt, but Sou once again lifted him off the ground with his kick. The giant was sent flailing backwards and onto the floor. Sou now copied him and loomed over him.

"Unlike you, I don't need anything to fuel my will to fight!" Sou leaned in close to George and whispered, "And just between you and me, you're just a warm-up." Sou thrust his arm down and drilled into George's stomach. George let out a humongous roar of pain until his hand fell limp.

"K.O.! Yagami High's Sou Shuda takes the--"

"STOP!" George bellowed from on the ground. He instantly stood up again and charged towards Sou.

"_I'm not going to give up! Sara is cheering me on! I've got to win!"_ George thought to himself. He stared straight at Sou until he got just about next to him when he suddenly disappeared! _"Huh? Where'd he go?!"_

George felt himself being pushed up into the air. He tried to turn his head to see what happened, and he saw Sou slowly throwing him over his shoulder. George's visions of asking Sara out faded away into nothingness as he crashed into the floor with a thud. His limbs fell limp again.

"K.O.! Yagami High's Sou Shuda take the win!" Laura announced.

"George! Ahh! You lost to Stupid Monkey! How?!" Sara yelled.

"Will Harima Kenji and Yoshi Ken please enter the ring?" Laura asked.

"I guess I'm up next," Ken stated. "I will avenge George."

Five minutes passed when Hairma exited the arena, completely unscathed. Ken was left in the arena, piled atop George.

"Stupid! You're both dumb!"

"Ah, I guess my chances are shot," George wheezed as his consciousness slowly came back to him.

"Good job, Harima!" Laura congratulated.

"Yeah, whatever," Harima answered. He had only one thought on his mind at the moment: Where was Tenma? "Gah! She was supposed to be here!" Harima yelled in the middle of a crowd. Everyone stared at him for a second and then continued talking. "I scanned the whole crowd while fighting that weakling! Nowhere! I saw her nowhere! Where...where could she have gone to?"

Harima's ears suddenly picked up a noise that sounded similar to Tenma's voice. He turned over to see Tenma and someone else over by the edge of the stands. He used his super-vision and winced to see that it was none other than Karasuma!

"Karasuma..." Harima murmured. He breathed in heavily and yelled, "KARASUMA!"

**AN: I'm very sorry for the delay. I was at a friends house all day and forgot about updating until now. I'm very sorry for the short delay, and I promise it probably won't happen again. Atleast, not like the way it just did.**


	8. Rumble!

**Disclaimer: Nothing is owned by me except for my original characters and the original story. Everything else pertaining to the series of School Rumble is owned by Jin Kobayashi.**

**AN: Okay, finally. The hiatus that plagued me for about two months (when I said I wouldn't be taking much time off...go figure) is over...in a few paragraphs. [ALERT: If you don't want to read a long paragraph of me complaining, skip to the next one] Excuse my language, but LOTSA shit happened during the hiatus. I'll note them: horrible swimming team record (3 wins, countless losses), me joining Tennis (and sucking at it), being awesome at Trombone (being complimented by the super-intendant of a certain event involving many schools), and my god-awful schedule that I said wouldn't kill me (Monday: Swimming; Tuesday: Early morning swim, Band after school, Swimming, Tennis; Wednesday: Swimming or some special event; Thursday: Early morning swim, Swimming; Friday: Swimming; Saturday: Swimming + hanging out with friends; Sunday: Supposed to be R&R, but noooooo, family stuff that lasts until 8 P.M.). As you can tell, I'm a busy person. I've also been dealt this painful acne on my back that's downright disgusting and, as stated, painful. I'm now on some kind of preparatory pill that gets rid of the pain and inflammation RIGHT BEFORE I GO ON A SCHOOL TRIP TO FLORIDA (yes, preparatory. What for? Acutane. If anyone knows what that is, atleast feel sort of sorry for me, please). Did I mention that this pill is actual labeled as a steroid, and now I can't sleep until 1:00 A.M.? The day also feels like it's longer, I'm basically the Superman who's allergic to bullets in Gym, and I NEVER get tired in swim practice. Good thing? No, because I feel the pain the next morning.**

**So, if you've taken your time to read that, then you know what's up. I just needed to list a really long explanation of why there was a hiatus. Oh, another thing pertaining to the paragraph: you probably noticed the big capitalized sentence mentioning a Florida trip? Yep. You guys probably know that this means one of two things: 1) You can now formulate a plan to assassinate me because you know where I am; 2) I'll be missing a week of this story right off the bat. Oh well, most hiatus returns don't keep consistent momentum.**

**One last thing regarding the School Rumble within the story (as in the fights): YES, they are totally illegal, and YES they are being sponsored by the schools. C'mon, if you've watched/read School Rumble, you'd come to expect this sort of randomness.**

**Chapter 8**

Rumble!

_Final Part of Catharsis_

Harima dashed towards Karasuma and Tenma with great ferocity. He grunted and waved his arms in the air in hopes of going faster, but failed to receive anything. His disturbance caught Laura's attention as she stepped out of her booth to see what was happening. She looked to her left, and then her right only to see Harima barrel straight into her. She flew back onto the ground with a great thud. In all his rage, Harima neglected any acknowledgement.

Sou walked around the school grounds searching for something to do when he saw Laura on the ground. He sprinted over to her. "Laura! You okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine. I don't know what happened...I think someone ran into me."

Sou looked up and heard Harima who yelled, "KarasuMAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"HariMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Sou yelled as he dashed after Harima.

Harima closed in on Tenma and Karasuma. They were overlooking a fight and eating some sort of snack. Harima ran up to Karasuma and gruffly shook him so he'd look at his face. Harima then realized that this was not Karasuma. And that lady next to this impersonation was not Tenma. No, neither were the real-deal. In fact, they were actually the principal and his wife from the opposing school.

Harima backed off and bowed, "Sorry! Didn't mean it!" he said pathetically.

"Oh, that's alright. Everybody here is hot-headed, so it's come to be expected," the principal remarked.

"I guess so..."

"HariMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Sou yelled from behind Harima. Sou leapt into the air, spun around, and nicked Harima in the cheek just as he was turning to see who yelled his name. Harima skid backwards a noticeable bit and stood concretely in the shock of the kick. Sou landed back on his feet like a nimble cat and stared angrily at Harima.

"See? I told you! Just like that! Man, you kids today!" the principal laughed. Sou quickly flashed a look of anger at him, which caused him to whisper to his wife, "I think we'd best move, 'Hun.'"

Sou looked back over at Harima only to see him on a crash-course with himself. Harima spun up a punch and quickly unleashed a nasty punch that was too swift for Sou to avoid. Sou took damage and flew back as well. "Now what the hell was THAT for?!"

"You're askin' me?! You pushed down an innocent bystander, and I ain't gunna' let you do that without proper restitution!" Sou then leapt once more at Harima, only this time he forced a head-on collision, which winded up being a simple draw.

"_I forgot that I need to use strategy here. Remember: if he uses Rock, I use Paper!"_ Sou reminded himself.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Harima yelled as he threw another punch.

Sou's intention almost forced his body to fly backwards away from the hit, but something deep inside him made him instinctively dive under the punch. From there, he wailed an upper straight into Harima's chin, which kicked his head back. Sou basked in this feeling of superiority, but for far too long. Harima retaliated with a powerful revenge-punch that sent Sou onto his back.

"_Damn! Why am I so stupid right now?!"_ Sou thought angrily.

Almost like in some fighting video game, Harima leapt straight into the air to a point where he blocked out the Sun from a certain perspective. Sou winced to see a shadow come barreling towards him, yelling something like, "Fist of Lotsa' Pain!" Soon, Harima was clearly visible as well as only a few feet away. Sou had nowhere to run. He decided it was best to lift his legs straight up and see what happens.

It turned out to be a good idea. Harima's face landed right on one of Sou's soles, which redirected and slowed down his punch. Sou kicked at Harima to make him fall to the floor so he could stand up. He closed his eyes, thinking that he had one, but it was quite the contrary. Harima stood up as if nothing had happened.

"What's with you?!" Sou questioned.

"What?! What do you mean what's with me?! That's the question I'M supposed to ask! You just ran up and punched me in the face, Villain!"

"Villain?"

"Yeah, you punched the GOODGUY in the FACE. Odds state that you are the VILLAIN."

"Goodguy? Villain?" Sou stood his ground for a second in an attempt to fully comprehend these words. He ultimately came to the conclusion that he didn't care, and he wanted to end this. "Whatever! It's time to end this! Here's the final punch: 'Palm of the Righteous Star!'"

"Oh, yeah? That's nothing compared to: 'Fist of an Exploding Supervolcano!'"

The two glowed with a tremendous aura. It was clear that they were both intensely focused on this one last punch. This was the last shebang. If one of them got hit by the other's, this would be over in an instant. The colliding force of two heavy punchers!

To Be Continued

Just Kidding

The two punches didn't connect with their target at all. In fact, they stopped halfway when they collided with each other's fists. The colliding force of two heavy punchers...left them lucky that their hands weren't shattered. Harima blew on his hand while Sou continued to stare intensely at Harima. Harima finally took notice after dealing with his limp hand.

"Alright! Spill it! What'd I do? I honestly can't think of anything that would set anyone off this much!"

"You always were an ignorant bastard, Harima," Sou said reflectively as if they had known each other since childhood. "You knocked down a dear friend of mine a little while ago. You completely ignored her just so you could get to your destination."

"What a-...Wait a minute...Yeah. I do remember something like that..."

"So do you apologize?"

"Not to you."

"WHAT?!"

"You just came up to me and kicked me! You think I'm gonna apologize to YOU?!"

"Yes."

"Why's that? This your girlfriend?"

"No. Just a friend."

"Right. Well then, you can give her my sincere apology. I'm outta here." Harima stood up brusquely and made his way out of the school grounds. He passed up an on-looking Laura and paid no mind to apologize.

"Sou!" Laura called. She ran up behind Sou and leaned over him. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

"That last punch looked like it hurt...a lot."

"Yeah."

"Sou?"

"Sorry."

"For what?"

"It's Harima's message," Sou said pathetically as he made his own way off of the school grounds.

**End of Chapter**

**AN: Sheesh. Yeah, I know that it's a rocky comeback, but please be patient. The good stuff hasn't come yet.**


	9. Coincidence!

Disclaimer: Once again, everything relating to School Rumble (aside from my OC's within it AND my plot) belongs to Jin Kobayashi.

A/N: This may be the last long note. Well, I failed miserably to keep a comeback's momentum. I apologize. It was due to tons of crap with a side of procrastination on the side. I finally decided to do work sometime later on (the time this note was typed). I will keep a little date counter to just let you know when I began and finished it. Anyways, I've begun Drivers Ed! Woo! Now I don't have to wait for my parents to drive me to friends' houses or other stuff like that. I also get to stand guzzling gas for five minutes while that creepy dude who looks like Eyegore from Young Frankenstein stares at me. This is going to be F.U.N.!

Date started: 4/6/10

Ended: 4/6/10

Pbbbbthhpffff

Chapter 9

Coincidence!

_The First Interlude  
_

Rain droplets formed in the sky and descended onto the land with a silent _plop_. Blackened clouds consumed the skies and coughed up these droplets with a rude ignorance of humanity's inhabitants below. This sudden downpour embellished the humiliating fight Sou had with Harima. But that wasn't what he was thinking at the moment. Instead, he had to think of a place to find shelter.

Without thinking, he entered the Cafe. The tiny welcoming bell chimed with a tone that was a little too ironic for the mood. Sou made his way around the small diner and into a booth. He sighed and hugged himself to silence the shivers that ran through his body. He breathed in increments and closed his eyes. After this whole ordeal, he smiled and laid his head back on the booth.

"Hi, Sou!" an all-too-familiar voice greeted from inside the booth next to him. This voice would usually make Sou go insane and give the owner of it a nasty look before turning back in his booth. However, when Sou's eyes met the friendly, black, double-ponytailed hairdo, he reconsidered that decision.

"Hey, Tenma."

"You came in here, too?"

"Yeah, I didn't think anywhere else was fun."

"I know! We come here all the time! Maybe you should, too!"

"'We?'" Sou repeated. To get a good look at the 'we' Tenma mentioned, Sou stood up and looked. There was Mikoto, Akira, and Eri. "You all come here all the time?"

"Yeah-- Umm, well, Eri doesn't come here as often."

"Really?" Sou said as he gave Eri a questionable look.

"H-Hey! Don't single me out!" Eri retorted.

"Calm down, calm down! It didn't mean anything, honestly!" Sou reassured Eri.

"I knew that!" Eri replied flatly. "I knew that," she repeated solemnly.

"So I heard you went to the School Rumble! How was it?" Tenma said, sparking new conversations.

"Kinda lame, actually. Nothing too great there."

"I heard it was interesting," Akira interjected. "People say that you fought Harima."

"What? Is that true?" Mikoto asked ecstatically.

"Huh? Yeah, it is. Annoying bastard knocked over my friend."

"Would that be Laura?" Akira replied.

"How do you know all of this?"

And then, with a silent, but immediately understandable deadliness, Akira spoke, "I've got my sources."

"I see. But yeah, he knocked over Laura."

"That stupid Hige! How dare he! I sure hope you gave him a beating!" Eri asked excitedly.

"I'd say it was a tie. He walked away, but they were under unquestionable circumstances."

"Oh, so he didn't get a good beating? Too bad," Eri said in a disappointed, yet relieved tone as she sat back down.

"So what's with you and this Laura girl?" Mikoto interrupted.

"We were friends since preschool."

"Preschool? That's...a really long time!" Eri answered.

"Not when you think about it. We never went to the same school, and it's a rare occasion we hang out. It's as if we've only been friends for a year or so."

"That's not what a meant. I meant that it's a long time for you to not fall for each other!"

"Fall for each other? No way. That'd be awkward. Besides, Laura isn't really my type of girl."

"Your 'type?' You have a 'type?'" Eri questioned.

"Sure I do. Everyone does."

"Humor me."

"My type of girl would just be a normal girl. Maybe she has a little money in her family, but nothing too ostentatious. She's also kind and wants to hang out with me a lot. She also never cheats or is indecisive about things. Laura isn't any of those things. She's kind, I'll give her that, but her family is poor. Also, she can never really hang out. And if you were to describe her, you'd probably use 'indecisive' as the first adjective. I know it seems like I'm bagging on her, but I swear I'm not."

"Hmph. So you're just a guy who has criteria that'll never be reached by any girl. Your use of 'normal' is misplaced."

"Really, now? Well, then. Humor _me_ this time. What's your type?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because I told you mine."

"Oh, right... Well..."

"Hey, Sou!" Tenma broke in. "Do you have a picture of Laura?"

"Hm? Yeah. Why?"

"Could we see it?"

Sou got out his cell phone and filed through the few pictures saved within it. He found Laura's only picture and showed it to the group.

"Wow! She's pretty!" Tenma exclaimed.

"You really are stupid for not falling for her," Eri said.

"Really now? Well then, if you're just gonna make fun of me, then I guess I'll leave! Later!"

And with the grace of a hardcore punk band, Sou left.

"Looks like you were shot down. You're the exact opposite of his type, Eri!" Mikoto laughed.

"Shut up! It's not like I was going to be into him or anything!"

"Riiiiight. We know all of your tricks. You play it off as if you're cool and all, but that just masks your true intentions deep down."

"I said shut up, Mikoto!"


End file.
